Presentation High School graduating seniors Alisha Azevedo and Mary Clare
Bernal are co-winners of the Nano Nagle Award, the school’s highest honor, bestowed at a school assembly, May 21.
The award, named for the foundress of the Sisters of the Presentation, is given to a senior who exemplifies the best in a Presentation graduate – intellectually competent, dedicated to serving others, committed to her own personal growth and a woman of faith. It comes with a $1,000 scholarship.
“Some say that true leadership is leaving the place better than you found it,” Principal Mary Miller said in her remarks to the student body. “By that definition their leadership is unquestionable, for Pres is a better school because they have walked these halls.”
Bernal was a four-year member of Presentation’s Math and Science Academy and its president as a senior.
During her junior year, she co-chaired an event that brought students from Our Lady of Grace Nativity School to Presentation for a day of academic activities.
Bernal was also a member of Community Involvement for four years and The Voice student newspaper staff for two. She will go to Georgetown University in the fall.
Azevedo was co-managing editor of The Voice this year, her third on the staff. She was vice president of the speech and debate team, served as a counselor at the summer speech and debate camp, and was a team captain her junior year.
She was also Associated Student Body co-president this year. She did all this while holding a part-time job since her sophomore year. She will head to the University of California-Berkeley, where she has already landed a summer internship at The Daily Cal.
“With all they have going for them, each student is amazingly humble and gracious,” Miller said. “They don’t see themselves as something special – an attribute that makes them special, indeed.”